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100 years have passed, and the future is in our hands. Where does the path lead? What achievements still await us? What crises? What challenges? The future is open. The challenges are enormous, but so is our vision, our capability and the strength of our alliance.

One hundred years ago, a group of people sat in a hall in London and dreamed of a different future for the Jewish people. Did they know what the result of their decision to establish Keren Hayesod would be? Did they foresee the crises and the difficulties? Did they imagine what would be achieved as a result of this decision? As we have seen in the 99 “Heartbeats” we just read, we have come a long way and achieved a great deal. More than could have been dreamed of at the outset. The founders did their job. They laid the foundation, against all odds. Our grandparents and parents continued their work, and on this foundation, despite great challenges, built a magnificent country with great achievements and a flourishing, strong and secure Jewish world connected by a strong and meaningful bond. Their generations learned the lessons of the past 100 years. They understood the significance of mutual responsibility and believed in it with all their hearts. They acted on this belief through Keren Hayesod, and together changed the world.

And now, where do we go from here? Responsibility to act effectively to shape reality and fashion the future lies with each and every one of us. It is our responsibility to continue this partnership, so that our children and grandchildren can grow up in a world in which they are secure, knowing that they have someone to depend on, that they are connected to a safety net, that there are people, some of whom they will never meet, who are there for them. We have inherited a world with a strong and flourishing State of Israel, which addresses the needs of every Jew, and now it is our turn to continue to develop it. The tangible expression of mutual responsibility among us as a people is Keren Hayesod. Keren Hayesod bolsters our pride in our heritage and helps us look to the future with confidence. So it has been for the past 100 years, and so it will continue to be in the future. Because in the face of the uncertainty of the future, one thing is clear – as long as the State of Israel exists, as long as there are Jewish communities around the world, as long as we are driven by a sense of mutual responsibility – we must continue together. Keren Hayesod and you. All of us together – for the people of Israel. For the sake of the future.

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Photo: Artwork created by Yaakov Agam in honor of Keren Hayesod’s 100th anniversary

One of Keren Hayesod’s guiding principles is “people on behalf of people”. The organization works for the people of Israel in the broadest sense – for the citizens and residents of the State of Israel, both Jewish and non-Jewish, and in cooperation with Jews from all over the world and Friends of Israel of other faiths. Keren Hayesod creates an important bridge between people living in Israel and Jews and Friends of Israel in the Diaspora, and works to strengthen the affinity between them.

Keren Hayesod’s activities are directed at the residents of Israel. Every year tens of thousands of people benefit from its activities and receive support, thanks to the donations collected by Keren Hayesod. Its ongoing activities are carried out by dozens of activists, emissaries, representatives and volunteers who work for the campaigns and raise funds. In this way, Keren Hayesod gives concrete meaning to the slogan: “For the People of Israel”.

Former chief rabbi of Israel, Israel Meir Lau, a close friend of Keren Hayesod, never missed the March of the Living. He has gone every year for the past 31 years, marching and remembering that moment at the Piotrków train station in Poland when his mother thrust him from her arms at the last second before the doors of the train closed. “That was the hardest moment of the six Holocaust years of my childhood”, he says, “the moment of separation from my mother…” That was the last time he ever saw her and he wasn’t even able to say goodbye. He was 7½ years old. “When my mother saw that they were making a selection on the track – men to one side, women and children to the other side – she understood that the men had a better chance of surviving. At the last second before I was pushed into the freight car and the doors closed, she thrust me toward my brother Naftali, who was 18½ at the time. She called out to him, ‘Take the boy’, and in doing so, saved my life. I cried bitterly”. Rabbi Lau has taken part in every march since the March of the Living was instituted in 1988 with a few thousand young Jews. They walked from the Auschwitz concentration camp to Birkenau, the adjacent death camp, where one million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust. The March of the Living has evolved into week-long events to commemorate the Holocaust. Tens of thousands of young people from around the world take part; they are joined by Holocaust survivors, heads of state and other dignitaries from the Jewish and general world. Keren Hayesod delegations take part in the March of the Living every year. From there they often continue on to Israel for an empowering and inspiring visit.

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Photo: Rabbi Israel Meir Lau with the Israeli delegation to the March of the Living, 2016

Every morning when Sarah Pecanac arrives at her job at Yad Vashem, she stops at the copper board bearing the name of her mother, Zejneba Hardaga, the first Muslim ever to be recognized as a Righteous Gentile. During World War II in Sarayevo, Sarah’s Muslim family was in close contact with the Kavilio family, members of the local Jewish community. When the Nazis invaded in 1941, the Kavilios’ lives were in danger. Despite the enormous sign near their home declaring that the fate of anyone caught concealing Jews would be death, Mustafa and Zejneba Hardaga sheltered their Jewish friends. 40 years later, the Kavilio family gave testimony at Yad Vashem that resulted in recognition of the Hardagas as Righteous Gentiles.

But the story does not end there. In 1992, the situation was reversed. Civil war broke out in Yugoslavia. Zejneba Hardaga’s home was blown up and the family was forced to hide in a shelter for a long time. The civil war also threatened the local Jewish population and Keren Hayesod and the Jewish Agency for Israel prepared a daring rescue campaign to save the Jews of Sarajevo.

Through the Kavilio family, the story of the family of Righteous Gentiles living in a state of emergency came to the attention of Shimon Peres, then Minister of Foreign Affairs. Peres asked to include the Hardaga family in the rescue operation. The dangerous operation got underway in 1992, and the Hardagas, along with the Jewish refugees from the region, were rescued and flown to Israel. Sarah found herself in Israel. She settled in very quickly and converted to Judaism, permanently linking her fate with that of the Jewish people.

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Photo: Zejneba Hardaga (fourth from right) at a tree-planting ceremony in honor of the family at Yad Vashem, 1985

Young Jewish leaders emerged after the Six-Day War and established an elite group that eventually became Keren Hayesod’s young leadership. Young Jews from around the globe wanted to get to know each other and meet, and together, find new ways of supporting the State of Israel and the Jewish people. More and more young people, enthusiastic students who were motivated to volunteer, joined the founding group that originated in Western Europe. Local groups subsequently were formed, catching the attention of Keren Hayesod management. They understood the enormous potential and the natural connection between the young leadership groups and Keren Hayesod. The young leaders saw Keren Hayesod as a fertile field for action, meetings and donations, strengthening the bond among themselves and with the Jewish people and the State of Israel. Things developed rapidly. In 1971, Keren Hayesod’s Young Leadership Department was established to coordinate the activities of the groups of young people. At the beginning of the 1970s, there were five Young Leadership groups in Europe; by the middle of the decade there were already 50 active groups around the world.

250 young people from around the world took part in the first international young leadership conference, “Yachdav”, held in Israel in 1977. Since then, these international gatherings have become a tradition, with Julia Koschitzky, the honorary president of Keren Hayesod, generously supporting Kesher – The Julia Koschitzky Seminar for Young Leadership, which takes place every year during the World Conference. The week-long seminar gives the participants an unforgettable experience and an unmediated acquaintance with Israel, enabling them to become part of the future generation of Jewish leadership. Young Leadership departments throughout the world continue to hold annual fundraising activities that result in significant donations. Over the years, some of Keren Hayesod’s leaders and key activists around the world have emerged from Young Leadership.

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Photo: Julia Koschitzky with Kesher Seminar participants

The dream came true. The vision for which Keren Hayesod was founded materialized. The foundations laid by Keren Hayesod made the establishment of the state possible. Almost every settlement in Israel, every water pipe, streetlight and road, every field and building was supported by funds from Keren Hayesod. Education, health care, defense and security, absorption and settlement of immigrants from across Europe – all this was achieved thanks to Keren Hayesod.

Now, with the establishment of the state, the task was complete and Keren Hayesod faced key questions: Had its activities come to an end? How should it continue? In what way? Keren Hayesod leaders understood that the establishment of the state was only the first step, and that a long road still lay ahead. The new state had to be able to survive despite its many enemies, to absorb millions of additional immigrants and to develop in all spheres of life. From the time of its establishment to the present, Keren Hayesod has been dedicated to investing in all aspects of life in Israel.

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Photo: Crowds in the courtyard of the National Institutions building in Jerusalem on November 30, 1947 celebrate the UN decision of 29 November that led to the establishment of the state about half a year later

Everyone wants to see the life of the pioneers in Eretz Israel!

May 1935. The premiere of the information film from Eretz Israel, Land of Promise, arouses great curiosity. Just how great? Thousands of Jews in Berlin throng the cinemas. The film is quickly distributed to every town in Germany with over 200 Jews, and from Germany, to the rest of the world. In the United States, 50,000 people see the film within just three weeks!

The film, which was directed by Yehuda Lehman and produced by Leo Herman of Keren Hayesod, depicted the building of the Jewish home in the Land of Israel and the lives of the Jews who lived there. The Jews in the Diaspora were eager to see these sights with their own eyes. Everyone had heard about the Zionist enterprise in the Land of Israel and now they had the opportunity to see real stories! Nobel prize-winning scientist Albert Einstein attended the New York premiere of the film and heaped praise on it. The reviews were celebratory. After its Tel Aviv premiere on November 26, 1935, 12,000 people saw the film in just a few days, and the crowds at the box offices were unending.

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Photo: Advertisement for the film Land of Promise

Let’s start with a riddle: how do you turn desolate and arid land into a verdant and bountiful paradise? The answer is very simple: water. In 1964, the “National Carrier” was officially launched – the main artery of a vast and impressive water enterprise that carries water from Lake Kinneret to Mitzpe Ramon. The system, 130 km in length, was the realization of the 40-year old dream of “water power”. This vision was even mentioned in one of the chapters of The Keren Hayesod Book (1921); Keren Hayesod was the main partner in financing the Israeli water company, Mekorot, providing 6,250 liras out of Mekorot’s initial capital of 35,000 liras. The company’s first campaign was initiated by its director, Levi Eshkol, later prime minister of Israel, who discovered a number of new sources of water and decided on an unprecedented operation to bring water to the Jezreel Valley settlements. But this was just the beginning. In the 1940s, in order to fully realize this wonderful vision, Keren Hayesod invited a senior world-class researcher in the field to visit; he officially confirmed that Israel had sufficient water sources to supply its needs. The idea received final approval and the rest is history. Cheers.

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Photo: David Ben Gurion visits the National Carrier project, 1963

Aryeh Oz’s fascinating life story teaches about the importance of mutual responsibility among the Jewish people – one of Keren Hayesod’s most basic tenets. Oz was a Holocaust survivor, new immigrant, student at a youth village, IDF pilot who received a Certificate of Recognition for his part in Operation Entebbe and an El Al pilot who flew new immigrants to Israel in Operation Solomon. After Kristallnacht in Germany (1938), Oz’s family fled to Holland, which was conquered by the Germans shortly thereafter.

The day before Oz was scheduled to be sent to a concentration camp, a Jewish student connected him with a family that hid him until the end of the war. At age 11, he made aliyah on his own and was sent to a youth village, where he received a home and an education. “What I got there guided me on my life’s path”, he attests. “I was accepted into a course for pilots and I was happy to be able to give back to the entity that made it possible for me to be here”.

Oz commanded a squadron in the Air Force, dropped paratroopers at the Mitla Pass during the Sinai Campaign (1956) and flew one of the planes in Operation Entebbe (1974). He later became an El Al pilot and was one of the key pilots in Operation Solomon, which brought Ethiopian Jews to Israel. At a dramatic moment during the operation, when there were no seats left on the plane, but people still remained on the ground, Oz courageously authorized bringing more olim onto the plane. In the end, there were 1,000 passengers, breaking a Guinness record. Oz said of this moving flight that he was closing the circle: from a rescued child to a pilot rescuing others. “When we passed over Jerusalem and I made a left turn toward the airport, the entire plane sang Jerusalem of Gold. There wasn’t a single person who didn’t have tears in his eyes”.

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Photo: Aryeh Oz, from the KH annual film, 2017

Sherly America was born and raised in Indonesia, the largest Muslim country in the world. She was shocked to see demonstrations against the State of Israel, at which the Israeli flag was burned, and decided, as a Christian believer, that it was her obligation and privilege to protect and support the State of Israel and the Jewish people. For the past decade, Sherly has been lecturing in churches and meeting with leaders and businesspeople to tell them about the blessing that the State of Israel brings to the world and the miracle that, after 2,000 years of exile, the Jewish people has returned to its land. Sherly helped Keren Hayesod build a network of support in southeast Asia, which led to the establishment of the KH-FOI campaign in Singapore, in partnership with Indonesia and Malaysia.

Today, as president of the Keren Hayesod Friends of Israel International Women’s Division, Sherley works to encourage businesswomen to support Israel through Keren Hayesod. This is just one example of the growing support from Christian Friends around the world. In the early 2000s, Keren Hayesod realized the tremendous importance of connecting with Christian Friends of Israel. In 2008, the Friends of Israel Division was founded and it has not stopped growing. The first event in Singapore was held about 10 years ago, with a few dozen participants, for example. Since then, another 13 branches have been opened in neighboring countries, and the number of participants at events and fundraisers has increased by hundreds of percent. Friends of Israel groups are now operating all over the Christian world, connecting Jews and Christians who contribute to the strengthening of the State of Israel. Friends of Israel donors are an integral part of Keren Hayesod’s activities and we value them tremendously.

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Photo: 2016 I-Witness Leadership Mission to Israel